The Burger King Corporation (BKC) seems to be in denial regarding the decision by Mirabile Investment Corporation (MIC), a Memphis-based management company with more then 40 Burger King locations across the Mid-South, to place the words “Global Warming is Baloney” on many of not all of its exterior signs.

BKC distanced itself from the message last week, claiming that the the “two” signs in question had been removed. At the time of Burger King's official statement, Flyer readers had already reported at least 10 such signs in various locations between Batesvile, Mississippi, and Martin, Tennessee.

Bad news for Memphis fast food junkies: Locally appearing Burger King signs reading “Global Warming is Baloney” aren't a tone-deaf marketing campaign for some delicious new Whopper-loni sandwich. Darn it.

On the other hand ecologically-minded consumers can breathe a little easier knowing that Burger King Corp. (BKC), the company that licenses BK franchises, isn't going on the warpath against global warming science.

On Friday, May 29 Susan Robison, Vice President, Corporate Communications for the Burger King Corporation, dropped The Flyer an email containing BKC's official — if not fully informed — statement regarding the signs.

The dead return to downtown the next two Fridays, but this ain’t no zombie march (though somebody is going to get his ass, er shoulder, capped).

Elmwood Cemetery is bringing a car-full of its most colorful residents for a presentation in Court Square. It’s part of the Center City Commission’s Downtown Alive series, from 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m.

On Friday, May 29th, official MPD bagpiper Mark Henderson will be setting the mood as the period-dressed grave-warmers take the square. Among them: a 1930s widow and accused husband-killer; the man who drove the train right before Casey Jones “went and wrecked” it; and a women who cuckolded her husband with Civil War general Earl Van Dorn.

At the June 5th event, violence will erupt during a reenactment of an 1869 duel between Tom Dickens and Wade Bolton (the guy the high school was named after).

Elmwood held a similar presentation in Court Square last year. According to education coordinator Linley Schmidt, there were a few odd looks at first, probably because of their costumes. “When they realized we weren’t going to ask them for any money, they enjoyed it.”

Pictured is reenactor Vincent Astor as Wade Bolton.

I must admit that the nightmares I have about Burger King's regally creepy mascot already leave a bad taste in my mouth. But if the fast food industry's most famous underdogs are really taking a stand against global warming science, I'm breaking up with the oh-so-delicious Whopper for good. And I mean it this time.

Businesses usually don't court political controversy, but signs at (at least) two Memphis Burger King locations read: "Global Warming is Baloney." According to one employee at the Burger King on Union Avenue and Pauline, that's no mistake.

Care to eavesdrop on my incredibly strange conversation with a female BK employee who didn't identify herself? Read on.

It's not too often you get reports of UFOs in the Memphis area, much less ones that are captured on video and disseminated through YouTube. A dispatch from Examiner.com discusses a May 20th sighting in Horn Lake, Mississippi, of all places. (Warning, video contains NSFW language.)

The deed was done under the cover of darkness. “We did it to mark our turf,” says their leader Christiana Leibovich. “We don’t want any other knitters on our territory.”

The Memphis Knit Mafia put up this “pole cozy,” a bit of guerilla knitting, over an old sign post outside of Café Eclectic in the Vollintine-Evergreen neighborhood last Tuesday night. The work, which is about 10 feet long, is a colorful mash-up of knitting styles — cables, stripes, checks, and even the Batman logo — created over a few months by the seven or eight core members of the group.

The members of the Memphis Knit Mafia, whose ages range from late 20s to mid-40s, originally met each other through the online site ravelry.com. They found their personalities and wicked senses of humor clicked, and they decided to form their own group, meeting each Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. at Café Eclectic.

Weird that I missed this. Memphis' multiple inclusions on this list of crazy interviews is usually the sort of thing I catch for Fly on the Wall. Anyway, earlier this year Nerve.com made a list of the 20 weirdest celebrity interviews of all time and Memphis dominated with three completely bizarro chat segments. Two were in the top five, and one was produced locally and conducted by none other that iron weatherman and wrestling commentator Dave Brown. High five!

Sun Records' fuzzy-headed founder Sam Phillips owned the 19th position (could have been much higher up on the list IMO) for his wild-eyed, charmingly uncooperative 1986 turn on Late Night With David Letterman. Phillips, who'd just been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, described Letterman as “lucky” because not many people with buck teeth can make a million dollars.

“Getcha little something that you can't get at home.” For me, that sampled-from-life line in "Pasties & a G-String," Tom Waits' seedy strip-show pitch, has always defined modern burlesque. Every show will include pretty girls in sparkling skimpies. That's a given. But it's best when there are surprises. Maybe something strange, esoteric, or exotic. Or antic and ludicrous. Or mystifying. Or artistic. Or educational. Or all of the above. The folks behind the Pretty Things Peepshow who'll be performing their classic girly show at Nocturnal on Thursday, May 14th, take a somewhat like-minded view of these baser arts. At least they've toured with a contortionist and a sword box.

One of the great joys of living in Midtown Memphis in the days before digital photography was being able to walk into the Walgreen's on Union Avenue on any given day and have a conversation with noted Civil Rights photographer Ernest C. Withers who, prior to his death in 2007, could often be found there waiting for his latest roll of film to be developed. He was a common, down-to-Earth man with an uncommon talent for documenting the extraordinary people and events that shaped Memphis in the last half of the 20th century. Soon those who never had the chance to talk to the man while waiting to pay for cough drops and a bag of Cheetos will have an opportunity to get up close and personal with one of the Mid-South's most important artists and documentarians.

An agreement has been struck between Beale Street's Performa Real Estate. and the Ernest C. Withers Trust to create museum to preserve and promote Withers' photographic legacy.

Ronald “Brickhouse” Brown, the self-proclaimed “master of seduction” who once wrestled as “The Black Prince,” has never had any trouble talking trash. Once, while grappling in Memphis in the mid-1980s, he snarled at Jerry “The King” Lawler, who'd recently become a national figure after slapping comedian Andy Kaufman on Late Night with David Letterman. “Nobody never ever touch me unless I want them to, and I'm talking about a young, lovely tenderoni," Brown said to Lawler. "And you don't look anything like lovely.” Then he turned on a fan and barked. “You know I'm better than 'fairly decent.' I'm a superstar!”

Oh sure , IKEA and Apple may have been among the first to use cool product-based mosaics in their branding campaigns. But Bose has gone 21st Century Warhol with celebrity portraits of Elvis, Madonna, Jim Morrison, and Kishore, a superstar among Bollywood's playback singers.

Hat tip to Boing Boing.